Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Back when I was a 3D Graphics weenie working at a company creating 3D effect for film and television, there were two holy grails:

Create a virtual room or environment that was indistinguishable from and actual photograph of the same environment.

Create a virtual human being that looks, behaves and acts like the real thing -- oh, and do it in real time.

Number 1 happened quite a while ago now...but number 2 has proven to be quite elusive...there are subtleties to the range of human emotion, expression and verbal nuance that is difficult not only for the graphics engines involved, but for the algorithms that control the motion and react to the audio.

However, at the Game Developer's Conference currently going on in San Francisco, a motion capture company (of all people), Mova, has achieved this goal with spooky accuracy using their Contour Reality Capture System (an array of motion capture camera mapping out 100,000 polygons and mapping the texture captured directly on them), plus their Unreal Engine 3 renderer.

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Rocket Pilot

Fortunate enough to have been the CTO/SVP at a number of successful ventures, including Revision3, Transpera, Third Screen Media, m-Qube, MediaRush and ATG. Entrepreneur (now), scientist (then). As proof of both, I perform feats of science for beer. about.me/robdemillo

June 29, 2007. iPhone released. Do I think this will outsell other phones? No. Was it a good idea to sell it locked at a premium? No. Is the fanboy base more annoying than Paris Hilton? Yes. Will it change the way the cell industry treats its users? Absolutely.

Oct 22, 2008. First Android phone release as the T-Mobile G1. Is this specific phone an iPhone killer? No. Is the fact that 30 more Android phones are on their way?

Q4 2008. The world economy collapses due to home financing fiasco. The tech sector begins to feel it - when the dust clears, only the long lasting tech plays will survive.